East Suffolk Council has reduced its arrears by over £250,000 during the past 15 months after its implementation of Mobysoft’s RentSense software.
Samantha Shimmon, head of tenant services, East Suffolk Council, said, “As soon as we’d completed the deployment of RentSense, our income team was able to get through its weekly caseload; this has not only reduced our arrears but also improved team morale because RentSense’s reporting capability means that our income officers can now immediately see how they’re performing.”
The council found that RentSense flags cases sooner than its previous methods and helps its income team to intervene at the earliest stages, even before arrears have been accrued.
Shimmon said, “Our team loves the early intervention cases where, for example, accounts are in credit but housing benefit has stopped or been reduced. They can be proactive and prevent the tenants from falling into arrears and get remedies in before it’s too late.
“Our arrears have been consistently reduced since the introduction of RentSense, even with the financial pressures of lockdown that some of our tenants have had to contend with. We have also seen fewer court actions and evictions because RentSense enables us to contact tenants sooner, thereby preventing arrears.”
